Sports

Student-athletes receive honors

Baseball standout Ben Keubbing, softball record-setter Kendra DeArk, and soccer star Sarah Zembrodt were named male and co-female Pioneer Athletes of the Year during the annual awards ceremony in May. An academic and a leadership award were also presented.

Keubbing, a senior designated hitter, outfielder, and pitcher from Burlington, Ky., helped lead the baseball team to a 20-win season. He is a two-time All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference performer, and his career-high .453 batting average this past year was the second best season ever for a Transylvania player.

Keubbing was also named the winner of the George H. Stopp Award as the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average for a four-year career. A business administration and economics double major, he was named to the Dean’s List seven times, graduated magna cum laude with honors in both his majors, and won the Rara-Avis Award for outstanding scholarship in economics.

DeArk, a senior from Jeffersonville, Ind., is a right-handed pitcher who led the Pioneer softball team to a 20-win season and a third straight HCAC championship. She is a two-time HCAC Pitcher of the Year and a four-time All-HCAC first team member. She ranks second on the Transylvania career wins list with 50 and is in the top five of every major pitching category.

Zembrodt, a senior from Edgewood, Ky., helped the women’s soccer team to its second straight HCAC title this past season and into the NCAA Division III championships for the second year in a row. This past season she was the HCAC Defensive Player of the Year and was named to the All-Great Lakes Region team and a second-team All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. She is a two-time All-HCAC performer.